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How to open SIM card slot without a SIM tool

Remember where you keep your SIM tools - those little metal things you occasionally get with a new phone? No, me neither, but don't despair. Fortunately for me, and you, I've MacGyvered my way into the SIM card tray and microSD card slot many a time. Here are a few handy ways to open the SIM card slot without a SIM tool.

What do you have near you?

Earring or piercing

The right tool for the job might be closer than you think, as in on your body. Traditional earrings with thinner wires or hooks work best. On others, you might need to unscrew the ball/spike on the end. More extreme piercings might be too large to serve as SIM tray openers.

Paperclip

Probably the next most common thing, if you happen to work in an office. Not the fat plastic coated paperclips, but pretty much any small metal paper clip will get your SIM tray ejected. And when you're done you can use it to attach various bits of paper together.

Needle

If you repair socks and pants as much as I do (you don't want to know), then you'll have a needle floating around the house somewhere. Just use the not-pointy end in the SIM eject hole and press down on the edge of a table. I'd advise you not to try this using your hand.

Thumbtack/staple

Another ubiquitous object around home and the office is the thumbtack. There are many shapes and sizes, but pretty much all of them are capable of opening your SIM tray. If you're thinking outside the box then you've probably realized that you could also use a staple.

Of course, there are lots of other alternatives too, including a toothpick, safety pin or basically any other pointy thing you have laying around.

Go to a store and ask nicely

If you are ever out and about and need to pull out your SIM card tray, as I have been in the past, one of the quickest ways to solve the problem is to pop into a nearby store. Of course, if you are in the middle of the woods, you are in trouble, but if you are in an urban area with a large shopping mall or high-street phone carrier store, you needn't worry. The last time I went into an O2 store to ask them to open my SIM tray, the helpful employee was wearing a SIM tool around his neck and was more than happy to help me out for free.

Do you have any other secret SIM tools to share? Let us know in the comments.

I have always carried about 3-5 paper clips on my wallet. When you work on Tech Support for several years, you carry them for when a CD/DVD rom won't open the easy way or any other type of situation. Nowadays I wear a bracelet that has a sim picker tool. Anytime I see someone trying to pick the sim out, I pull a clip from my wallet and I get a Mcgyver comment.

Not only that, but the SIZE of the cards have gotten so small, you can lose one without even trying, if your card is on the side of the phone, and you don't know which side is up, if you don't have your hand on it, or over a table. ;)

Does anyone else think it is a stupid setup? New phone did not come with one, Verizon gave me one, put it on my keychain, lost keys a week later...first time ever in my life doing that! AND does anyone know what to do when the Samsung Galaxy battery quits and needs replacing, since who knows how to get to that. I used to think prying the whole back off the S4 was stupid, but this is worse.

I bought a cheap Huawei because the screen on my S4 is broken, but shit, I think I'll stay wit hthe S4 as long as it still works. Prying the back is a pleasure. Easy and you can use anything. The ejection tool thing is just completely unnecessary.

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